Farming technologies in Europe –Overview, their adoption and impact,

and future perspectivesProf. dr. Peter Groot Koerkamp 6 December 2018

2018 EU Agricultural Outlook Conference

Growing world population

Food (quantity, quality), fuel, fibres, chemical components, ...

Growing scarcity of resources

● Fertilizers (phosphate), fossil fuels, water, human labour, ...

Growing impact on environment

● Greenhouse gasses, acidification, chemicals, waste, eutrophication, diseases, ...

Agriculture is facing some challenges

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Role of technology in agriculture

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Current technology

4Van Tuijl (2013) based on Da Vinci (ca. 1490)

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Pedigree of (Precision) Agriculture Technologies

7Balafoutis, A., Beck, B., Fountas, S., Vangeyte, J., Wal, T. van der, Soto, I., Gomez-Barbero M., Barnes A. & Eory, V. (2017). Precision Agriculture Technologies Positively Contributing to GHG Emissions Mitigation, Farm Productivity and Economics. Sustainability, 9(8), 1339.

• Global Navigation Satellite Systems

• Guidance technologies

• Recording technologies

• Reacting technologies

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Intelligence in Agriculture Technologies

8Van Henten & Van Mourik, 2018.

Data & signal processing

‘World’ modellingPrediction

Decision making

Guidance & navigation technologies (GNSS & CTF)

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Recording technologies – wide array of sensorsAnimals, product, soil, crop/biomass, phenotyping

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3D plant architecture Food quality inspection

Models & decision support systems (DSS)

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Big Data

Utilize DNA information

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Reacting technologiesDynamic Pulse system sprayer (by Agrifac)

Variable rate planting (density) of potatoes

www.sweeper-robot.eu

Full autonomous sweet peper harvesting robot

Vision based precision weed control (Steketee)

Farm economy Productivity (yield per ha/animal) & Product quality & Animal health Improved resource use, farm management & reporting Reduced costs (labour, management time)

Environment Losses & emissions - application of agrochemicals and nutrients Food chain traceability – information – license to produce Link plant and animal phenotypic expressions in practice to breeding

Impact of farming technologies: benefits

17Godwin et al., 2003; Silva et al., 2011; Kindred et al., 2015; Smith et al., 2013; Eory et al., 2015; Schimmelpfennig, 2016

Knowledge exchange & networking

Reducing complexity in data presentation

Turning data into useable information

Access to finance

Data-ownership & sharing

www.smart-akis.com

Main challenges in adoption of technologies

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EIP-AGRI thematic network SMART-AKISDr. Spyros Fountas, Agricultural University of AthensDavid Tinker, Tinker associates

Future farming?

Development of technologies & Precision Agriculture towards PA 3.0 & 4.0:

● More ‘on the go’ applications

● More and better sensing at high resolution

● Better decision making based on site specific data and models

● More robotics & autonomous machines

● Data sharing between farmers and chain partners

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Roundel house for laying hens- undisputed animal welfare

Future farming systems?

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Redesign of systems –Technologies that enable and cooperate with ecological principles

Mixed cropping systems -diverse intensive agriculture

Thank you!

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And thanks to contributors forthis presentation:

Kees Lokhorst, Jos BalendonckCorné Kempenaar, Agro-Foodrobotics network, Eldert vanHenten, Tamme van der Wal,Krijn Poppe, Yvette de Haas,David Tinker, Spyros Fountas